The Samsung S5: A wide leap from the S4

MANILA, Philippines - It was exciting for me, and a few geeks to fiddle with the new S5 smartphone in a hotel function room in Manila a few weeks back.  And this was while watching its world launch via livestream in Barcelona. I know I may sound crazy for getting excited about another new smart phone when so many new ones were just launched the past weeks from almost every brand.  And wasn’t it just a few months back, too, when the S4 was just introduced in the market? Time hasn’t even flown too far and fast yet, and here’s another smartphone we are being asked to be excited about. In the fast and furious lane of the digital world, I guess we can only expect ever-faster turnovers of new products.

As a person who loves gadgets, it would have be crazy to ignore the latest offering coming from an industry giant like Samsung.

I have the S4 and I love it. So what else can Samsung improve in the S5 to make it a phone to own? That’s what I asked myself as I held the S5 in my hands.

On the surface, the S5 is not too different looking from the S4. It has the familiar silvery and shiny sides. People will still complain about the plastic feel, which in truth never really bothered me. The plastic cover of the S5 is smooth with perforations, and comes in blue, white, black and copper. The screen is slightly bigger at 5.1 inches and is visibly more impressive than the S4. It is visibly clearer, brighter. And I found it faster, too. The phone is a teeny-weeny heavier, and the OS is the much-anticipated Android Kitkat.

But let me say that the newer functions and hardware   under the hood are what makes my S4 suddenly look less gorgeous than what it was just awhile back.

The Samsung S5 now has a fingerprint scanner for added security. You will need to tap and slide your finger downward 8 times to initially set it.  This feature also opens the phone to easier access to e-commerce such as PayPal, etc.

It also has a built in heart rate monitor below the back camera which is a great addition to Samsung’s sporty apps and functions found in the S4, such as the  pedometer, fitness coach and exercise tracker.

It is rated IP67 which means it is water and dust resistant — definitely a big plus. More than just being able to use it in the rain, you can actually drop it on a meter of water for 30 minutes.

In case your kid or younger sibs like to play with your phone, the Kid Mode function should keep them entertained with age appropriate apps enough to keep them away from the rest of the contents on your phone.

The camera and video upgrades are impressive, too.  The 0.3-second focus time is three times faster than the Galaxy S4 and is touted to be the fastest among smartphones as of now. This means you will most likely get less blurry shots of anything in motion, thanks to the Phase Detection autofocus found only in DSLR cameras.

For real time HDR, simply tap the screen to get an idea of how it will look before you shoot.  There is also the selective focus mode where you can decide which to focus on after the shot has been taken. You can choose between foreground and background by tapping on the screen. Nice! I was going to buy the Lytro camera, the only gadget that could do this, but now I don’t have to with the S5.

One of the biggest features that excite me about the S5 is the battery life. Its Ultra Power Saving feature is The Bomb. It is the best energy saving feature I have seen. Simply switch it on and in a few seconds, the screen turns to monochrome and reduces your access to your apps to the barest minimum. You yourself will choose which apps you will want to use on this mode.

Samsung says that with 10 percent battery life, you can extend phone use to 24 hours. On a full battery, you can use it for 15 days.

The S5 has real bragging rights too when it comes to the downloading speed via LTE.  Usually, smartphones are either on WIFI or 3G /4G. With the S5, both WIFI and LTE can be turned on for the quickest downloads at 1 gig in 30 seconds! That’s really amazing.

Thrown into the mix is My Magazine, an app similar to Flipboard, which is also available on the Note 3. Basically, it’s a personalized news and social feed app that keeps you up to date on Facebook, twitter, news, etc.

Samsung has not been lackadaisical and indifferent to competition. Although they could have made more strides in other areas, I would say the S5 is quite an impressive large leap from the S4, and a challenge to its competitors.

Is the S5 worth looking into?  Definitely.  Should you upgrade? If you can’t decide based on this review, go to a store and try it out for yourself.

I would.